Aug. 13 - 18, 2014

 It seems like we have a couple of days then it is Mon. again and time to catch up email.  Our lives don’t change that much week to week, but we’re still here and trying to help out.  Roszena is back in the picture this week. She has several appts.  Dr. and Lawyer, which she got to help her fight getting kicked out of her house. We will have to see who wins. She I pretty strong willed.  I would  hate to stand against her in a tug of war.
  Our Elder Readhead i transferred this week.  It will be interesting to see what elder comes. Frankford has been a little slow for new investigators the past three weeks. Maybe now that school is starting we will get more appointments.  Our first three baptisms haven’t been out to church for four weeks now. Today we are getting in touch with them and find out the real reason why.  It is so much easier to just sleep in and not have to account to anyone!!  I can’t wait to hear their excuses; maybe we will pass some on!
  We are starting a challenge next week to have the Book of Mormon read in a year. Most of our members don’t read, they want us to start reading with them. We’ll have to see if anyone of them follow through with this assignment.  Our LaMar is doing a little better each time he reads in Bible Study.  The saddest part is that they don’t care.  We challenge Ceria every time we are with her. She is 19 and plays Poke Man all day on her ipad. She still won’t pray at our meetings. I’ve ask her to come with me to Primary and help me teach the Valiant class. We can’t get motivated to participate in anything, but I have to give her credit... she comes every week and is now taking the initiative to walk to church and not have to be picked up.
A wonderful quote was given in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. I thought it was worth passing on and memorizing: “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything!”  Pretty profound.  It is our hope that we all have a purpose in life and are reaching for that purpose.  I know all of you are so good at making goals and working them off.  We are very proud of you, keep up the good work.
Congratulations in our family to Addison Davis, she returned from her successful mission in Rochester New York. We are proud of the wonderful job she did. We went to see her in action and were so happy with her wonderful testimony.  She now goes back to BYU, so lots of luck with that.  Morgan is starting school in Cedar City a CSU.  Good luck to you.  How did you grow up so fast? Christian Evans is starting school at UVU in Provo.  Boy our family is growing up, that makes us getting much older!
  Thanks to all of you for the love and support, your letter, calls and prayers are such a help, when we heard from Taylor a week ago, he said that the family had really got behind him with prayers, and how it made a difference in getting a whole family baptized.  Keep up the good work guys!
  We had a Senior Meeting last Mon. We all got trained on the new computer system going into the mission office.  Most of it was on ancestral files, but very informative. I can’t believe how the church is so 100% in everything they do. That is our main goal when we get home!
  All the Grand kids have started back in school. Good luck to all of you!  You are all good students and always give it your best. It sure will pay off when you grow up!
  We’ll sign off for this week. Hope there is more positive activity going on next week to report, no matter what: THE GOSPEL IS TRUE, WE LOVE IT HERE AND LOVE ALL OF YOU SO MUCH!
Elder & Sister Armstrong

August 6-13, 2014

We had a wonderful week this week!  It was enhanced by Rob, Laura & Brandon coming to Philadelphia. They arrived Thurs. night and left Sat. morning early to go pick up Addison who is now through with her mission.
We went down to inner city and showed Brandon the historical sights.  Independence Hall, where the constitution was signed, Liberty Bell, (through the window because the line was so long) Betsy Ross House, and the new temple sight.  We took a turn to go see the Rocky Balboa steps, but this got us in a traffic jam where we sat for over an hour trying to get back to the freeway.  The weather was cooperative and it was wonderful to be together!
 Laura and Rob are picking up Addison today.  Can't believe she has completed her mission. That 18 months went fast for us, just as our own time is flying,  We've already been here 7 months.
Things are a little slower right now in our part of the vineyard as far as new contacts go. We have been trying to spend more time working with the people that are newly baptized and keep them interested.  It is an ongoing process to keep everyone happy and focused.  They don't get that once you are baptized, you still have a lot of work to do.
Two of our members can't be found on church records, one is going to be re-baptized, and the other one we got in touch with the two missionaries that baptized her, and if you have two witnesses confirm the date, place and person they will accept that back in Salt Lake and they don't have to be re-baptized.  She was real happy about that. She is going through a lot right now because she is being evicted from her house on the 17th.
Every day we are here we become more aware of our blessing as members of the church. Our testimonies grow each day and our appreciation for our membership, our Savior, our heritage and our mission grows every day.  We see so much poverty, sickness and sorrow, why have we been blessed so very much?
Thank you for all the letters, support and information about home and family. We love and miss all of you, but we are so grateful to be here serving!  Have a wonderful week!

All our Love and appreciation,
Elder and Sister Armstrong

Independence Hall

With Brandon

Our Haitian lady (Maude)  broke her leg and her daughter had a new hair do, which you can't see very well. 

  Trying to  get our new members and inactive members interested in the Temple. Lamar, Elder Whitney, Jose, Elder Story, Elder Bott, Gertrude, Mom and I

Senior Missionary Couple activity.

July 28-Aug. 5th, 2014
  We just got our internet fixed and now it has been down again!  Maybe it is because we live in such an old house that the wiring just won’t take this new fang-dangled equipment!
  We are still happy missionaries, we still ask ourselves if we are doing anything back here but then our days surely fill up!
  The past week we have had four people evicted from their homes.  One just left her home and took all her personal items and went to New Jersey, walked out on her 18 year old Granddaughter she has raised, her daughter that Is going back to prison because of drugs, and said she has had enough!  (Kathleen)
  Person number 2,  (Ann) has had two month’s  notice that she would have to move and did nothing about it, so Fri. they kicked her out, she gathered all she owned and we moved it to a 5x5 storage unit.  You’ve never seen such a mess, she is very mentally ill, she is being accused of being on drugs, the landlady and her got in a terrible fight, with language I’ve never heard of, pray I don’t ever again.  She is staying with a girlfriend and has to be out of the storage unit in two weeks.  I imagine after the two weeks they will just open it up and put it up for auction!  My heart just aches for her, why do these people get into such pickles?
  Person number 3, (Rosina) our darling tooth lady that wants to live in our basement when our mission is over, we finally got the two missionaries that baptized her, both live in Utah and verified that they baptized her because there is no record of it back here.  We had to have two witnessed confirm it, so we were lucky that the Elders remembered her,(who could ever forget Rosina) so now the ward is bailing her out too. We just got a call (Rose #4) that her gas has been turned off today so we are going to deal with that!  
  Just 10 seconds ago (Rosina # 3) called and said they have raised her rent to 1,000, it was just yesterday that she was bailed out with her last two month’s rent so the problem wasn’t solved.  What is the rest of the day going to bring now?
  Sometimes I wish we were teaching more missionary lessons, not just solving problems for poor sisters.  Lynda (my visiting teaching sister) and I are going teaching this afternoon.  This will be real interesting, because (Tammy # 5 sister in trouble) says she is not coming back to church for a while).  Wish us good luck!
  We are excited that we will have a break this Fri. Laura and Rob will be here and we will see some positive people who actually love the gospel and have a home to go to when they get back from getting Addison.  We are excited about Addison coming home, she has been a wonderful   missionary and now Is heading back to the BYU.  Taylor comes home in Oct.
  All the family seems to be doing good, we are so grateful you are all so actively involved with life, doing well, helping mankind and well.  We all have so much to be thankful for;  especially that we all love one another and care what each other is doing!  Keep up the good work family!  Families are Forever and that includes all of us!  We love all of you so much!  Mom & Dad,  Grandpa & Grandma,  Neighbor, Friend,  Elder & Sister Armstrong

July 29- Aug. 4, 2014

Hi everyone, we enjoy hearing about your missions. They are so different and I guess variety makes it interesting. Would anyone like to change with us for just a little while, so you can get a taste of Philly. Just kidding, we are enjoying our work even though it is very challenging. For awhile the missionary work was going so strong, 8 baptisms since we got here, but only about 3 are consistent in coming to church. They have so many problems, it is really hard to keep them enthused. Last week we had three families come to the church for assistance, since they were all getting evicted from their apartments for non payment of rent, power and water. One of the sisters, Rosina, finally warmed up to Sister Armstrong and myself and wants to come and live in our house in Utah when we leave, ha, ha. We had been driving her to all her doctor and dentist appointments in Center City, which takes most of the day. We then approached the branch for food orders for her and several others, which requires us to drive to New Jersey to the bishops storehouse. It also takes us most of the day, and to top it off I have gotten three tickets at the toll booths, despite our having an EZ pass furnished by the church. Anyway when we got to the point of writing a check from the welfare funds, we couldn’t find her membership! It is nowhere to be found, even though she showed us pictures of her baptism and the Elders who Baptized her. This happened to another member of our branch who was also baptized at the same time in a neighboring ward, several years ago. We think they never filled out the paper work. She was livid! I hope we can get it worked out, since today is the deadline.

Another sister, (never been to church since we got here) called us for a blessing. When we got there with the missionaries, she had been thrown out of her house, and she and the landlord’s girlfriend (what a pair) were about in a fist fight. This women (our member) is really, really, mixed up. Anyway I talked to the Landlord and quieted them down, and told him I didn’t blame him for kicking her out. We then  helped her move her stuff into a storage unit. (You would not believe the junk and filth in her room). The next day Sister Armstrong and I went over to finishing packing, and she wasn’t there, so we began putting her stuff in garbage bags to take to the storage unit. She eventually came, and I asked her where her 16 year old son was who was supposed to help us, and she said oh, he went bowling with his friends. So we packed up their things and told the landlord that this was all we were taking, and he could throw the rest of the junk away. All her belongings (for a lifetime) fit in a small 5x7 unit.

Last night we had the missionaries over for dinner, along with two other members. It is transfer time, and I am sure at least one (the one from England) will be leaving, it was also his birthday! It was a nice evening. One of the sisters who came to dinner, (we’re not match making) served a mission, went to BYU and moved here. She isn’t married, but wants to be, but there isn’t much opportunity here. The other one is just starting her life, works three jobs, wants to go on a mission, and wants to come to Utah with us and go to school. (boy, we’ll have a house full!) Joyce is asleep and probably wants to add to this, but I guess I’ll send it for now. Have a great day, love ya all. Elder Armstrong

Our little Haitian Kids

Jose Jose's birthday party